Humility is a clearing in a field
I read a great quote this evening and just wanted to preserve and highlight it. From "The Psychology of Progressive Hostility," by Matthew Blackwell on Quillette. The article itself is quite interesting and I recommend reading it. But the fantastic metaphor of the small clearing in the woods stands on it's own:
The world is more complex than we can imagine, and every new point of view we encounter can enrich our understanding even if we don’t embrace it entirely. But this comes with the risk of self-effacement and growing uncertainty. Imagine that you are standing in a small clearing in the middle of a vast forest, and that this forest represents your ignorance of the world. The clearing you stand in represents your knowledge. As one gains knowledge, the clearing expands and the forest of ignorance recedes. But as the clearing expands, so does its circumference and so the area of contact between knowledge and ignorance also grows, and our knowledge of the extent of our ignorance grows with it. So, paradoxically, the wiser we become, the less wise we feel. This is the wellspring of intellectual humility, the Socratic realization that the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know, and the more apparent it becomes that your own opinions are susceptible to fallibility.
"But as the clearing expands, so does its circumference and so the area of contact between knowledge and ignorance also grows, and our knowledge of the extent of our ignorance grows with it."
I just love that.
The image is one I took of the Walchensee from the summit of Heimgarten, probably the easiest to reach peak from my place in Munich that offers a respectable 1000 meters of elevation gain to the summit.